Prime Minister Justin Trudeau..

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with artificial intelligence business leaders

February 10, 2025
Paris, France

Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had meetings with artificial intelligence (AI) business leaders, including the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, Lisa Su, the founder and Chairman of OVHCloud, Octave Klaba, the co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face, Clément Delangue, and the CEO of Arm, Rene Haas.

During these meetings, Prime Minister Trudeau positioned Canada as an ideal partner for AI innovation. He highlighted Canada’s world-class research institutions, vibrant AI ecosystem, top talent, diverse startups, and strong government support through initiatives like the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy. He also emphasized Canada’s commitment to developing AI through an ethical and responsible approach.

The Prime Minister noted how Canada is well placed to lead and power AI innovation, thanks to its abundant supply of critical minerals, clean and reliable energy, and growing semiconductor industry. He also emphasized that, as G7 President, Canada would continue to demonstrate leadership in advancing security, prosperity, and partnerships, including through AI adoption, energy, and inclusion.

These meetings were an opportunity for the Prime Minister to hear directly from the world’s leading companies in the AI ecosystem. They also helped deepen commercial relations between Canada and our partners across the United States and the European Union.

Associated Links

• Prime Minister to travel to Paris and Brussels to strengthen transatlantic co-operation and advance global progress on AI
• Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy
• Artificial intelligence ecosystem

Prime Minister announces a change to the Ministry

February 6, 2025
Ottawa, Ontario

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced a change to the Ministry:

• Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Canadian Heritage, will act concurrently as Minister of Tourism and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec.

The Prime Minister thanked Soraya Martinez Ferrada for her dedication and service to Canadians.

Associated Link

• Cabinet

Prime Minister announces the appointment of Canada’s new Fentanyl Czar

February 11, 2025
Ottawa, Ontario

Fentanyl is a lethal drug that has torn apart communities and families across Canada and the United States. The scourge of fentanyl must be wiped from the face of the Earth, its production must be shut down, and its profiteers must be punished. 

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced the appointment of Kevin Brosseau as Canada’s new Fentanyl Czar, effective immediately. 

As Fentanyl Czar, Mr. Brosseau will work closely with U.S. counterparts and law enforcement agencies to accelerate Canada’s ongoing work to detect, disrupt, and dismantle the fentanyl trade. Mr. Brosseau brings extensive law enforcement experience, having served in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for over 20 years, including as Deputy Commissioner and top cop in Manitoba. Recently, as Deputy National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, Mr. Brosseau navigated Canada’s most sensitive security challenges. His demonstrated expertise tackling drug trafficking, organized crime networks, and other national security threats will bring tremendous value to this position. 

Canada is taking significant action to stop the production and trafficking of illegal fentanyl. We are adding new and expanded detection capacity at border entries to find illegal drugs and guns and shorten cargo container processing time. We are building a Canadian Drug Analysis Centre to analyze illegal drug samples and identify where and how these drugs are manufactured. We are deploying new chemical detection tools at high-risk ports of entry, new canine teams to intercept illegal drugs, and a new Precursor Chemical Risk Management Unit to better track precursor chemicals and distribution channels. In the 2024 Fall Economic Statement, we introduced strong measures such as steeper penalties and regulatory changes to fight financial crimes, including money laundering, that often enable fentanyl trafficking. 

While less than 1 per cent of the fentanyl intercepted at the U.S. border comes from Canada, any amount of fentanyl is too much. With Canada's $1.3 billion border plan, we are reinforcing our strong border and stopping the fentanyl trade – with new Black Hawk helicopters, drones, mobile surveillance towers, and nearly 10,000 frontline personnel working on protecting the border. As an important legal tool to enforce criminal investigations in Canada, we will also be listing organized crime cartels as terrorist entities under the Criminal Code. This listing will strengthen the RCMP’s ability to prevent and disrupt cartel activities in our country. 

Last week, the Prime Minister signed a new intelligence directive, backed by $200 million in investment, that will give our security agencies more capacity to gather intelligence on transnational organized crime and share with our American partners and law enforcement across the continent. This complements joint law enforcement co-ordination efforts, including through the Canada-U.S. Joint Strike Force to combat organized crime, fentanyl, and money laundering.

Quotes

“Fentanyl is a lethal drug that must be eradicated from our communities. Today’s appointment of Kevin Brosseau as Fentanyl Czar will accelerate Canada’s efforts to detect, disrupt, and dismantle the fentanyl trade, in partnership with the United States. With an over 20-year career in public safety and national security including tackling drug trafficking and organized crime, Mr. Brosseau will bring tremendous value to this position, and his work will help keep Canadians safe.”

— The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

“Canada needs a Fentanyl Czar who will co-ordinate between agencies, move quickly to tackle challenges, and bring over 20 years of RCMP experience to a crisis that is plaguing our communities. Between cities and provinces, as well as our international borders, this person will need to work with all levels of government, with credibility as a team player. Working closely with our American counterparts to disrupt and dismantle this illegal drug trade crossing our border, the Fentanyl Czar will need expertise in drug trafficking, organized crime networks, and other national security threats. Kevin Brosseau is that person.”

— The Hon. David McGuinty, Minister of Public Safety

Quick Facts

• The Prime Ministerial Directive on Transnational Crime and Border Security directed the national security and intelligence community to stand up a Joint Operational Intelligence Cell as well as information sharing hubs between provinces, territories, and international partners, to bolster the detection and disruption the trafficking of fentanyl and other illicit drugs, both within Canada and abroad.
• Health Canada’s new Canadian Drug Analysis Centre will allow for more specialized analysis of synthetic drug samples. The analysis will go beyond identifying the components of a sample and look at forensic markers to help determine how and where these substances were manufactured.
• Health Canada’s new Precursor Chemical Risk Management Unit will increase oversight over precursor chemicals and distribution channels as well as monitor emerging illegal drug trends.

Related Product 

• Kevin Brosseau

Associated Links

• Canada-United States relations
• Government of Canada announces its plan to strengthen border security and our immigration system
• Strengthening border security
• 2024 Fall Economic Statement 
• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with premiers on the Canada-U.S. relationship and economic prosperity

Statement on Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and the Planet

February 11, 2025
Paris, France

1. Participants from over 100 countries, including government leaders, international organisations, representatives of civil society, the private sector, and the academic and research communities gathered in Paris on February 10 and 11, 2025, to hold the AI Action Summit. Rapid development of AI technologies represents a major paradigm shift, impacting our citizens, and societies in many ways. In line with the Paris Pact for People and the Planet, and the principles that countries must have ownership of their transition strategies, we have identified priorities and launched concrete actions to advance the public interest and to bridge digital divides through accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our actions are grounded in three main principles of science, solutions - focusing on open AI models in compliance with countries frameworks - and policy standards, in line with international frameworks.
2. This Summit has highlighted the importance of reinforcing the diversity of the AI ecosystem. It has laid an open, multi-stakeholder and inclusive approach that will enable AI to be human rights based, human-centric, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy while also stressing the need and urgency to narrow the inequalities and assist developing countries in artificial intelligence capacity-building so they can build AI capacities.
3. Acknowledging existing multilateral initiatives on AI, including the United Nations General Assembly Resolutions, the Global Digital Compact, the UNESCO Recommendation on Ethics of AI, the African Union Continental AI Strategy, and the works of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Council of Europe and European Union, the G7 including the Hiroshima AI Process and G20, we have affirmed the following main priorities: 

• Promoting AI accessibility to reduce digital divides

• Ensuring AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy, taking into account international frameworks for all 

• Making innovation in AI thrive by enabling conditions for its development and avoiding market concentration driving industrial recovery and development

• Encouraging AI deployment that positively shapes the future of work and labour markets and delivers opportunity for sustainable growth

• Making AI sustainable for people and the planet

• Reinforcing international cooperation to promote coordination in international governance

To deliver on these priorities: 

• Founding members have launched a major Public Interest AI Platform and Incubator, to support, amplify, decrease fragmentation between existing public and private initiatives on Public Interest AI and address digital divides. The Public interest AI Initiative will sustain and support digital public goods and technical assistance and capacity building projects in data, model development, openness and transparency, audit, compute, talent, financing and collaboration to support and co-create a trustworthy AI ecosystem advancing the public interest of all, for all and by all. 

• We have discussed, at a Summit for the first time and in a multi-stakeholder format, issues related to AI and energy. This discussion has led to sharing knowledge to foster investments for sustainable AI systems (hardware, infrastructure, models), to promoting an international discussion on AI and environment, to welcoming an observatory on the energy impact of AI with the International Energy Agency, to showcasing energy-friendly AI innovation.
• We recognize the need to enhance our shared knowledge on the impacts of AI in the job market, though the creation of network of Observatories, to better anticipate AI implications for workplaces, training and education and to use AI to foster productivity, skill development, quality and working conditions and social dialogue.

4. We recognize the need for inclusive multistakeholder dialogues and cooperation on AI governance. We underline the need for a global reflection integrating inter alia questions of safety, sustainable development, innovation, respect of international laws including humanitarian law and human rights law and the protection of human rights, gender equality, linguistic diversity, protection of consumers and of intellectual property rights. We take notes of efforts and discussions related to international fora where AI governance is examined. As outlined in the Global Digital Compact adopted by the UN General Assembly, participants also reaffirmed their commitment to initiate a Global Dialogue on AI governance and the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and to align on-going governance efforts, ensuring complementarity and avoiding duplication. 
5. Harnessing the benefits of AI technologies to support our economies and societies depends on advancing Trust and Safety. We commend the role of the Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit and Seoul Summits that have been essential in progressing international cooperation on AI safety and we note the voluntary commitments launched there. We will keep addressing the risks of AI to information integrity and continue the work on AI transparency. 
6. We look forward to next AI milestones such as the Kigali Summit, the 3rd Global Forum on the Ethics of AI hosted by Thailand and UNESCO, the 2025 World AI Conference and the AI for Good Global Summit 2025 to follow up on our commitments and continue to take concrete actions aligned with a sustainable and inclusive AI.

Signatory countries: 

1. Armenia
2. Australia
3. Austria
4. Belgium
5. Brazil
6. Bulgaria
7. Cambodia
8. Canada
9. Chile
10. China
11. Croatia
12. Cyprus
13. Czechia
14. Denmark
15. Djibouti
16. Estonia
17. Finland
18. France
19. Germany
20. Greece
21. Hungary
22. India
23. Indonesia
24. Ireland
25. Italy
26. Japan
27. Kazakhstan
28. Kenya
29. Latvia
30. Lithuania
31. Luxembourg
32. Malta
33. Mexico
34. Monaco
35. Morocco
36. New Zealand
37. Nigeria
38. Norway
39. Poland
40. Portugal
41. Romania
42. Rwanda
43. Senegal
44. Serbia
45. Singapore
46. Slovakia
47. Slovenia
48. South Africa
49. Republic of Korea
50. Spain
51. Sweden
52. Switzerland
53. Thailand
54. Netherlands
55. United Arab Emirates
56. Ukraine
57. Uruguay
58. Vatican
59. European Union
60. African Union Commission